Postmodernism, post-structuralism, post-colonialism

Postmodern and postcolonial theories question grand stories about progress, reason and the West. Said exposed Orientalism as a way of knowing that also dominated, Foucault linked knowledge to power, Bourdieu showed how taste and habit reproduce inequality, Habermas defended rational public debate, Giddens theorised structuration, and Castells mapped the network society. For example, a textbook that presents only Western cities as modern is not neutral knowledge; it is a representation with political effects.